M5 MacBook Air forgets Wi-Fi name, password & private MAC address settings on reboot or shutdown

Question

Level 1

4 points

M5 MacBook Air forgets Wi-Fi name, password & private MAC address settings on reboot or shutdown

My new M5 MacBook Air forgets WiFi "Known Network (SSID)" name and password upon Reboot or Shutdown. Also, WiFi "Private MAC address" doesn't stay turned off. I use MAC filtering (White List) on my home router for each SSID. My router is configured to use the MacBook's original firmware MAC address, not a randomly generated fixed or variable pseudo MAC address. The problem is NOT with my router or it's configuration, as I have other Apple computers and devices which connect to the "Known Network (SSID)" without any issues what so ever.

I have worked with Apple support personnel on this problem many hours to no avail. I have even erased and reinstalled, not recovered, the Mac Tahoe 26.5.2 operating system on this MacBook Air. My other Mac computers are running Tahoe and connecting to my network without any problems remembering the network SSID and password.

Does anyone have a fix for this? Thank you.

MacBook Air (M5, 2026)

Posted on Jul 20, 2026 8:07 PM

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Answer 1

steve626

Level 6

16,583 points

Jul 20, 2026 8:33 PM in response to Erin_A

Not sure how users here might help if you spent "many hours" with Apple Support already. But clearly some setting is wrong on that Mac.

Go to System Settings.
Click Wi-Fi in the sidebar, then scroll down on the right and click Advanced to see the networks known to your Mac.
Click the More Options button next to the network, then:

- Turn off Auto-Join. To remember the network and its password, but prevent your device from joining it automatically, turn off Auto-Join. After you disconnect from the network, such as by turning Wi-Fi off and on or moving out of network range, your device no longer automatically rejoins the network. You can still join the network manually each time.

The above explains how to turn off auto-join, can you go through the above steps to check if auto-join is disabled, and if so, re-enable it?

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Answer 2

Erin_A Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 21, 2026 8:22 AM in response to steve626

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried it to see if it would fix the problem. Unfortunately it didn't.

I use my MacBook Air (MBA) within the router's range with no dropping issues.

The essence of the problem is that the MBA does not remember the network name, nor the password and other settings if I reboot or shutdown. I've tried many things including a reinstall of the operating system.

Uninstalling the WiFi service, then rebooting and reinstalling the Wifi service. This MBA just won't remember the network name and settings. I'm almost at the point of asking Apple to exchange my MBA - it is new and a few weeks 'old'.

Thank you for trying to help me.

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